Caucus Feature and History Log

Charles Roth, Last revised 5 April 2005

This document is a detailed log of the history of bug fixes, feature changes, and improvements to Caucus.  It is by definition a working document, and changes frequently.  It starts from version 4.60/i71, a major new release that contains the new "course conference" features.

The table below summarizes the changes in each new revision.  Most recent changes are at the top of the table.  The "Binary" column shows the version number of the CML interpreter or "engine" that runs Caucus.  The "CML" column shows the version number of the standard set of CML files distributed with Caucus, that define the actual look and operation of the user interface.

Click on the binary or CML version number link to see the precise details of the changes.

Binary  CML  Summary of changes
 
i90
  1. New: Manager statistics wizard "Activity" report.
  2. Fix: prevent IE back-button bug from Center page.
 
4.70
  1. Fix: SQL query memory leak.
 
i89
  1. Add Manager control of toolbar buttons.
  2. Add automatic groups from conference membership lists.
  3. Fix: delete conference aliases with conferences.
 
i88
  1. Add 'Tasks' (aka actions or to-do list) feature.
  2. Show both "manage" and "customize" links under "You are..."
  3. Fix: re-enable individual e-mail notification schedules.
  4. Filter non-printing characters in uploaded filesafe files.
 
4.69
  1. Use unixODBC (instead of iODBC) to connect to MySQL.
  2. Fix: make $readln() handle any size line.
  3. Fix: wildcard permission bug.
 
i87
  1. Add auto-join feature for conferences.
  2. Fix: make "Select Responses" window pop-up "Print" window even through pop-up blockers.
  3. Support for forth-coming "authentication method 3".
  4. Fix: People button lists matching user even if only one match.
  5. Fix: "Force join" option shows correct count of members.
  6. Fix: "Force join" option adds conference to personal conference list.
  7. Item & response "Delete" links use javascript to activate.
  8. Organizers may show & edit deleted responses.
  9. E-mail notifier daemon defaults to "on".
 
i86
  1. Add Symbols button to richtext editor.
  2. Support richtext editor on Assignments page.
  3. Fix: apply CSS styles to IFS pages.
  4. Fix: make "Produce User Reports" filenames unique.
  5. Add 2-D scrolling with fixed sidebar/header to course status (gradebook) page.
 
4.68c
  1. Allow wild cards at start or end of userid matching.
  2. Force end of URL detection at > or <
 
i85
  1. "Manage Users by Date" now displays date last on properly.
  2. "Attach file" pop-up window simplified.
  3. Fix problems with math symbol pop-up for Mozilla.
  4. Finish implementing "site-wide" email notifications.
  5. Modify help text for "Customize Users" to describe 4.68c "*smith" case.
  6. Conference home page "list items since" option handles any date format.
 
4.68b
  1. Bug fix: $array_set() crashed swebs if its first ~10 arguments are all numbers.
 
i84 Some features in i84 require 4.68a.
  1. Email participation emails now include attachments to responses.
  2. Add %photo() macro.
  3. Trim out <base> tags entered by users.
 
4.68a
  1. Add $encode64() for base64 file encoding.
 
i83 Rev i83 resumes the ongoing process of new Caucus development, and thus may have things added to this rev over time.  It is not needed for the official 4.6 "Sirius" release of Caucus.
  1. Newly registered users are automatically added to group interface_registered_XXX.
  2. Self-registration page can use all macros.
  3. Improved handling of "symbols" button.
  4. Use CSS for "announcements" and email-everyone "list of recipients" op-up page.
  5. Change "email to all" feature to address emails to "undisclosed recipients".
  6. Fix CSNAP to not complain about non-ambiguous conference names.
 
i82 This is the "minor patch" update to i81.
  1. Extend "on now" options to allow "AIM" field.
  2. Fix bug: userids containing hyphens can't get grade scores.
  3. Fix bug: adding user info fields ("modify registration interface") may fail or cause duplicates.
 
i81 Version 4.68 / i81 is the CML code for the official release of Caucus 4.6, code-named "Sirius". 
  1. URLs typed in the richtext editor are now automatically "blued" in all browsers (not just IE), and automatically open a new window when appropriate.
  2. Fix "Create+View" richtext item so that the item is viewed.
  3. Add user-settable switch to show Caucus toolbar at the bottom of some pages.
  4. Fixed bugs with Copy/Move on "Select Responses" pop-up.
  5. Fixed bug with viewing forgotten items from conference home page.
  6. Automatically "blued" URLs now work in %image(), %url() macros.
  7. Floating images no longer "float" down into subsequent responses.
  8. "Who has seen this item" no longer slows down on deleted users.
 
4.68
  1. Add $addtarget() to add TARGET fields to <A HREF> tags.
  2. Add $h2url() to translate URLs in HTML text.
  3. Make $unique() start with a psuedo-random number.
 
i80 Version i80 is the base CML code for the beta-test release of Caucus 4.6, code-named "Sirius".  Many things have been reworked in this version.
  1. CSS integration, font control, new layouts for conference home page and item page.
  2. "Bozo" Filter.
  3. Remove Netscape 4.7 conflicts.
  4. Pop-up an error message if SQL connect failed.
  5. Show item titles in "compass bar" by default.
  6. Organizer may set default sort order for item lists.
  7. Organizers have an option to "not preserve original date" when copying responses.
  8. Added interface to any local virus-checker on the server.
  9. Added "delete response range" to edit-item page.
  10. Automatically create course conference tables.
  11. Add 'conf' option to %onnow() macro.
 
i79
  1. Fix: don't add ur_suspend field to old interfaces.
  2. Fix: correct slow deletion of userid by manager.
 
4.67
  1. Extend $it_resign() so that sweba scripts can "resign" anyone from any conference.

  2. Fix $pw_add() so that it uses the internal database if both LDAP and internal methods are enabled.

  3. Prevent infinite recursion in function evaluation.

  4. Fix: do not force SOCKET/sws*.log creation if event logging fails.
 
i78
  1. Feature: organizer can mark items "hidden".
  2. Fix user statistics wizard problem, shows previous user.
  3. Fix course status (gradebook) "too many Save Changes causes page to collapse" bug.
  4. Feature: new richtext editor!
  5. Feature: site-wide email subscriptions.
  6. Feature: extend center page "type a conference name" matches.
 
4.66
  1. Add $sql_query_select() function.
  2. Add $it_hidden() function.
  3. Add $set_it_hidden() function.
 
i77
  1. Raise max length of filesafe file description field to 2000 chars.
  2. Feature: organizer can define date-range for adding responses to an item.
  3. Feature: email participants are identified by "full name" alias.
 
4.65
  1. Fix rare "post-disappearing-response" problem.
  2. Add $peo_access() function.
 
i76
  1. Strip HTML tags from Search results.
  2. Allow manager to turn off Help or Quit buttons.
  3. Add option to display responses to an item in "reverse" order.
  4. E-mail participation: import attached files, handle HTML text.
  5. Allow quotes in course conference assignment titles.
  6. Fix permissions problem in restored-from-archive conferences.
  7. Speed up "assignments" page.
 
4.64
  1. Remove embedded blanks from userids.
  2. Make $escsingle() escape return characters.
  3. Make $readfile() translate return-newline pairs to newlines.
  4. Add $str_replace() function.
  5. Add $unhtml() function.
 
i75
  1. Fix bug in filesafe section handling.
  2. Course conference listing, instructor shown is 1st person in "Instructor" column in "conference permissions".
  3. Fix course conference bug, instructors can change conference home page options.
  4. Course conference assignments and course status (gradebook), now accept dates of the form "mm-dd-yy[yy]".
  5. %chattool(room type=embed) now warns if organizer has disabled applets.
  6. Fix bug in "empty" display of course conference assignment listing.
 
4.63
  1. Modify $add_resp() function so it can create an "empty" response.
  2. Add $mkdir() function.
 
i74
  1. Fix bug where "old-style" logins can get incorrect access permissions (e.g. get readonly instead of include or include instead of organizer).
  2. Add new %rtrim() macro.
  3. Fix bug where %chattool() macro may have "blued underscores" at the end of the link.
 
i73
  1. "Force join" adds conference to users' personal conference list.
  2. Fix intermittent disappearance of conferences from %courselist() display.
  3. Confirmation no longer required when joining conferences.
 
4.62
  1. Fix 4.60 problem that allows non-organizer deletion of responses.
 
i72
  1. Enable course conferences only if necessary MySQL tables exist and are accessible. 
  2. Restrict membership lists (from people button and for email lists) to those members who are also still allowed in the conference.
  3. Show "expandable" list of groups.
 
4.61
  1. Fix 4.60 problems with conference privs and old CML code.
  2. Fix 4.60 (and earlier?) problems with $set_per_join() making disallowed users members of a conference.